According to Guernica Magazine, Brunner's early memories include political shouting matches between his father and uncle.

[2] The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival has stated that Brunner's mother, Clara, wanted him to study law, but he was 'too smart for his own good', and thought that being a filmmaker would be lucrative and provide him an opportunity to travel.

[7] Based on historian Tom Segev's book of the same name, The Seventh Million explores the dilemma of Shoah survivors in finding a place in the newly established State of Israel.

[11] In reaction to Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, Brunner resolved to make a movie which was descriptive rather than dramatic.

[11] The film shows how Holocaust survivors reacted to their treatment in Israeli society by hiding tattoos received in Nazi concentration camps and responding with depression and resentment.

[11] The title and narrative are meant to portray the lasting effects of the Holocaust on modern Israeli life.

[11] Brunner describes a "watershed moment" he experienced in 1988 after reading The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949 by Benny Morris, whereupon he envisioned making the book into a film.

[2] About 6,000 of these books continue to be held today at National Library of Israel where they are labeled as "Abandoned Property".